Cold weather tires

[James DeFrain]

Probably wait until race weekend with the expectation of having to purchase tires, but will confer with tire vendor for recommendations. I'm trying to limit exposure to newbe mistakes and at this point I don't know what I don't know. Thanks for input.

[Christopher Simmons]

If you aren't positive about your tires, replace them. Also, use tire warmers.......... that's my 2 cents.....which is probably worth about 0.25 cents......on a good day....

[James DeFrain]

So Sundays race was a lessons learned as the track was dry so I went out on the Summer tires, which proved to be a mistake as I went down on turn 12 the back end slid out. I noticed rain tires being used even though the track was dry.
I

[Alan Phillips]

I don't think there is such thing as a cold weather tire or a summer tire. But I do know that both Jay and I ran Pirelli slicks. I ran the SC2 Front and the SC1 rear combo and they stuck great! Biggest thing with riding in colder weather is setting your pressures a little higher in the front off the warmer because your going to lose heat in the tire on the track, causing you to lose pressure.

-Alan Phillips

[Josh Henke]

I don't think there is such thing as a cold weather tire or a summer tire. But I do know that both Jay and I ran Pirelli slicks. I ran the SC2 Front and the SC1 rear combo and they stuck great! Biggest thing with riding in colder weather is setting your pressures a little higher in the front off the warmer because your going to lose heat in the tire on the track, causing you to lose pressure.

-Alan Phillips

Really? I thought the whole purpose of pressures was to maintain heat, and lowering pressure increases heat. What you've stated seems backward. I concede you're turning fast laps, not me, so you're likely right, it just surprises me.

[Alan Phillips]

Really? I thought the whole purpose of pressures was to maintain heat, and lowering pressure increases heat. What you've stated seems backward. I concede you're turning fast laps, not me, so you're likely right, it just surprises me.

When It is cold like it was at MSRH and you have your warmers on the tires, you are heating them to a certain temperature causing the pressure to rise. Then you are going out on a extremely cold track which normally your front tire will lose heat causing the pressure to lower, so to compensate the loss of heat/pressure on track I would raise the pressure on the warmers. Otherwise if you set at what you would normally then your tire will start to roll due to being low in pressure which is what mine was doing earlier in the day. I was about 2-3 lbs low and could feel the bike being harder to turn after lap 1 so we added more air to be about 2 lbs higher than normal on the warmers and it was spot on when we came off the track. Those 2lbs might not seam like a lot but it makes a huge difference in how the bike handles.

[Brandon Orr]

46 for a low with a high around 65 based on historical avgs for the past 80+ yrs in/near Angleton for Feb. 9-11
Avg precipitation for the whole month is 3.5 inches. Feb has the least amount of rain compared to all the other months. You now have the data, what will you do?

I think the historical weather patterns failed us for the 1st round.

[Joseph Caruso]

When It is cold like it was at MSRH and you have your warmers on the tires, you are heating them to a certain temperature causing the pressure to rise. Then you are going out on a extremely cold track which normally your front tire will lose heat causing the pressure to lower, so to compensate the loss of heat/pressure on track I would raise the pressure on the warmers. Otherwise if you set at what you would normally then your tire will start to roll due to being low in pressure which is what mine was doing earlier in the day. I was about 2-3 lbs low and could feel the bike being harder to turn after lap 1 so we added more air to be about 2 lbs higher than normal on the warmers and it was spot on when we came off the track. Those 2lbs might not seam like a lot but it makes a huge difference in how the bike handles.

Exactly.

The other option, and if you have the luxury of tire warmers with an adjustable temp, is set the warmer at a lower temp, closer to what the race temp will be to avoid the same problem. There will be little if any cooling and you'll maintain optimal tire temp. In addition, your out lap should not be a slow stroll to the line (nor should anyone elses!) and hopefully you won't be held on the line too long either. I suspect the latter may have contributed to Alan's fall in turn one.

Sorry for your fall Alan. You and Dustin were having some good scraps up front.

[James DeFrain]

your right about the tire pressure as I checked them right off the warmers. I was surprised by how little traction I had and these tire ran great the last race of the season at MSRH. Hopefully I'll get it dialed in at NOLA thanks for the insight.